WotLK Classic Frost Death Knight Guide (2025)

Last updated on Feb 13, 2024 at 12:00by Sellin7 comments

Welcome to our Frost Death Knight guide for WotLK Classic, tailoredfor PvE content. Here, you will learn how all you need to know to playFrost Death Knight proficiently. Click the links below to navigate the guideor read this page for a short introduction.

Death Knight is capable of both Tanking or DPSing and are near the bestat both depending on the encounter. Frost is primarily a DPS specialization witha large emphasis on procs and a constantly changing order of priorities thatwill keep you on your toes if you want to maximize your DPS. If you would liketo play a spec with a bit more of a linear path to maximum damage that emphasizesthe strengthening your pets and diseases consider trying Unholy.Unholy is extremely competitive damage-wise, not only with Frost but all other Melee specs.Blood, meanwhile, is the defaulttanking specialization for Death Knight and offers a massive amountof self-healing and group utility on top of being particularly sturdy againstany kind of damage.

Frost Death Knight has a very unique style of play based around a constantlyupdating list of priorities due to procs such as Rime or Killing Machine,but if you are able to follow them you will be dealing massive amounts of damage.In addition to doing tons of damage Frost also brings one of the strongest buffsto the game for other Physical damage dealers in Improved Icy Talons as wellas having some of the strongest personal survivability cooldowns in the game.

In PvP, Frost Death Knight is theking of burst damage. While extremely susceptible to slows and crowd controllingeffects, if you can manage to stay connected to a target as a Frost Death Knightyou will be doing nearly unhealable damage. Death Knights in generally are extremelysusceptible to crowd-controlling effects, so it is especially powerful to team upwith a class that is able to dispel Magic effects.

If you would like to see where Frost Death Knight falls in the overall rankingsamong DPS specs for both PvE and PvP in Lich King Classic, we have created pagesdedicated to explaining what classes and specializations are the best of the bestthrough multiple factors. However, ultimately, you should not let these listsdissuade you from playing what you enjoy.

The best race to play as a Frost Death Knight depends on your goalsand faction choice. If you are Horde, Orc is the the best option as changes toBlood Fury have made it more viable for Tanks and DPS, allowing you tobetter take advantage of snapshotting your debuffs early into encounters. AsAlliance, you can choose from any of the races, though if you are looking to frequentlytank either Dwarf or Night Elf are the best choices. Stoneformoffers a small personal cooldown while Night Elves' Quickness adds aconsiderable amount of Dodge passively. If you are looking mostly for PvP,Human is your best option because of how powerful Will to Survive is,allowing you to have an entire extra trinket slot that would typically be dedicatedto a CC-breaking PvP trinket.

Draenei offers a very situationally useful heal in Gift of the Naaru thatcan save you or a party member in an emergency. Heroic Presence is the mostpowerful racial though as it allows you and people in your party to itemizecompletely differently because of the added Hit Rating.

Dwarf is in a unique spot, as Stoneform can be a powerful defensive cooldown ina situation where you are unable to get dispelled, have a nasty bleed on you,and are taking a lot of Physical damage. Unfortunately Find Treasureand Gun Specialization are both completely useless for Death Knightsin any kind of combat situation.

Perception is extremely strong against any stealth class andcan net you a massive advantage in PvP, but Will to Survive is the realgame-changer, allowing you to dispel crowd-controlling effects off of yourselfand freeing up one of your trinket slots for a second PvE trinket.The Human Spirit is not particularly useful in any combat situation.Both Mace Specialization and Sword Specialization arequite strong early on in lower gear levels and even later on might alter yourgear choices while maintaining Expertise.

Escape Artist can be quite useful as one of Death Knight'sgreatest limitations is their lack of movement speed, however all other racialsother than perhaps Arcane Resistance are pretty useless in any combat situation.

Quickness offers a considerable amount of avoidance just for being aNight elf as well as a bit more passive resistance against Nature, which is amajor source of damage in this expansion. Shadowmeld does not really offerany in-combat benefits as a Death Knight but can sometimes help yousave a repair bill.

While Arcane Torrent does grant a small amount of Runic Power,there are not many combat benefits other than the passive Magic ResistanceBlood Elves have.

Orc is the overall strongest race for Death Knight thanks to the benefits ofBlood Fury which, in Wrath of the Lich King, no longer reduces incoming healing,additional pet damage thanks to Command, and a slight increasein effectiveness with axes thanks to Axe Specialization.

Tauren are by default the tankiest of the Horde races thanks to their increasedhealth value from Endurance and they have a powerful aoe stun inWar Stomp where Death Knight has no other stun.

There is an argument to be made, if you plan to play exclusivelyUnholy Death Knight, that Troll may be stronger due to the wayBerserking synergizes with Summon Gargoyle, but overall Troll issecond to Orc by a good amount in all Death Knight specalizationsincluding Blood.

While Will of the Forsaken is a strong PvP cooldown, it is a bit redundantwith spells such as Lichborne and Undead has no other in-combat benefitsother than some additional Shadow Resistance which is a major sourceof damage during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

Engineering is extremely important for Death Knightsboth for the personal DPS increases added from the Cloak and Glove enchants, butespecially the insane amount of mobility that Nitro Boosts affixed to yourboots will allow you. Engineering ends up being a slightly lower gain in statsthan other crafting professions, but the overall utility that theProfession has to offer makes it a must-have for almost every classand especially ones that struggle with mobility like Death Knight.

Jewelcrafting is the single largest increase of statsof any of the crafting professions especially before the addition ofEpic gems to the game. Stamina is thesingle strongest stat for a Blood Death Knight's survivabilityand this is the largest possible gain of it.

Engineering and Jewelcrafting are both chosen basedon their end-game benefits and do not offer any particularly beneficial gold farms.

Using macros and addons makes your life significantly easier when playing Wrath Classic,and they can improve your experience a lot, depending on how skilled you are at customizing them.

If you are interested in learning more about addons and macros suited toFrost Death Knights, check out our guides below: